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Introduction

A class action lawsuit is a claim brought in court by a group of people who all feel they have been harmed in a similar way by one entity - often a commercial company or other large organization.

Class action lawsuits usually start when one individual decides to sue over damages he or she has suffered, and hires a lawyer to help. The lawyer may realize that there are actually many more people with the same complaint, and takes the necessary steps to convert the claim into a class action.

Quite often, individual claims are relatively small but the number of claimants is high. In such a case it may not be worthwhile for a single claimant - or "plaintiff" - to go to all the trouble and expense to sue, but for the whole group it may well be. In other cases, even the individual claims are quite high, so that the total damages claimed by the group end up being astronomical. Class actions have the potential, in fact, to bankrupt even large corporations.

It is an important part of the lawyer's work to bring together this group of plaintiffs, often by extensive advertising and correspondence. Each potential plaintiff is then invited to agree to a contract by which he or she is entitled to share in any eventual settlement or court award of damages, in exchange for agreeing not to pursue an individual claim.

Another important task for the lawyer representing the group is to have a court "certify" the original plaintiff's claim as a class action - that is, convert it from a single action into a group one.

The usual way for this lawyer - or law firm - to be paid is by receiving a portion of any damages awarded. So, no damages, no fee. On the other hand, since such a "contingency fee" is typically in the range of 30 to 50 percent, a big win can mean a very large fee indeed (though only after what can sometimes be years of hard and skilled work, enormous expenses and very high risk).

Class actions, like civil claims in general, are often resolved out of court, before any trial decides the matter, by agreement or "settlement" between the parties involved. Resolving large claims through mediation or negotiation in this way often takes as much skill and experience on the part of the lawyer as winning a hard-fought trial.

Actual Class Actions, Past and Present

On the pages that follow you will find details of actual class action lawsuits, some of which are still under way. You can read through these pages in sequence, or pick from the index on the right side of this page.

Some Class Actions, Past and Present